Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup coconut milk
• 2 inches piece fresh lemongrass
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Smash the lemongrass with the edge of knife to release aroma
• Mix all of the ingredients together in a sauce pan
• Set on stove until it begins to boil
• Turn heat to low. Cover and cook until rice is done and the water is absorbed
• Removed bay leaves and lemon grass before serving
• Served with fried tempe, sambal goreng, and kerupuk

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Lumpia Semarang (Semarang Spring Roll)

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots (thinly sliced like match sticks)
• 1 pack bamboo shoot (thinly sliced)
• 3 eggs (scrambled and chopped)
• 3 green onions (thinly sliced)
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• Black pepper and salt to taste
• 1 pack spring roll wrapper
• Chili sauce
• Enough oil for frying

Preparation:

• Stir fry onion until translucent then add garlic.
• Add chicken, soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and pepper.
• Cook until chicken is cooked.
• Add the vegetables and cooked for about 5 min, then add scrambled eggs
• Cool the filling
• Put one tablespoon onto a wrapper, wrap, then deep fry
• Serve with chili sauce
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Gado-Gado Surabaya

Ingredients:

• Blanched/steamed vegetables
• long green beans, cut into 4-5 cm long
• Chinese cabbage, shredded
• Bean sprouts

Fresh Vegetables:

• Lettuce
• Tomato, wedged
• Cucumber, sliced

Other Complements:

• Boiled/steamed potatoes, sliced
• Boiled eggs, wedged
• Fried/baked tempe
• Fried/baked tofu
• Lontong (rice cake with log shape), cut into 1 cm thick
• Ready-to-use fried shallot
• Melinjo nuts crackers
• Shrimp crackers

Gado-gado sauce:

• 10 cloves garlic, stir fried/fried/roasted
• 300 g roasted/fried peanuts (In this case, I used 1 cup of organic crunchy peanut butter)
• 1000 ml coconut milk
• 10 red chilies, discard the seed and stir fried/fried
• 1 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste), toasted
• 1 block of coconut sugar (about 62.5 grams)
• 2-3 tbsp rice flour dissolve in a small amount of water

Sambal:

• 20 red bird eyes chilies, boiled /steamed
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• Sea salt as desired

Method:

Gado-Gado Sauce

• Process garlic, peanuts/peanut butter, a half part of coconut milk, red chilies, terasi, coconut sugar in a food processor or blender.
• In a sauce pot, combine processed mixture with the rest of coconut milk, stir and turn on the stove at low-medium heat. Stir occasionally.
• Cook sauce until boiled, the volume reduced and the sauce surface looks a bit oily. Add rice flour mixture. Keep stirring until bubbling about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Sambal:
Combine all ingredients and process in a food processor/blender or you can grind them with mortar and pestle.

Serving:
Place lettuce, slices of lontong and boiled potatoes, blanched vegetables, wedges of boiled egg, slices of fried tempe and tofu, and wedges of tomato, slices of cucumber. Pour the warm sauce over, garnish with fried shallot, crushed shrimp crackers and emping nuts crackers. Put sambal on the side as people has different tastebuds to handle the spiciness. You can omit the sambal if you don’t like the spicy sauce.

Tips:

• If the sauce to thick, add a small amount of water.
• Always try the sauce before remove from the heat, so you can add salt or coconut sugar to match your tastebuds.
• Serve gado-gado sauce while it is still warm. Warm up the sauce if it is cold.
• If you still have leftover sauce, keep it in a jar and refrigerate/freeze. You may use for other dipping purposes.

Glossary:

• Emping Melinjo: Melinjo or padi oats crackers
• Lontong: Rice cake with log shape
• Kerupuk/krupuk Udang: shrimp crackers
• Tempe/Tempeh: Indonesian fermented soy bean cake
• Terasi/Trassi: dried shrimp paste

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Indonesian Soto Ayam (Chicken Soto)

Ingredients:
1/2 chicken breast meat, skinless and deboned (cut into small cubes)
1 stalk of lemon grass (cut into 3 strips)
1 can of coconut milk
1 can of chicken broth
1 glass of water

Spice Paste:
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
4 shallots (chopped)
3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 pieces of turmeric (peeled and chopped) or 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder
2-inch piece of galangal (peeled and sliced)
2-inch piece of ginger (peeled and sliced)
1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice

Other ingredients:
2 cups of sliced cabbages
2 cups of bean sprouts
1/2 pack of vermicelli or 1 small package of glass noodles
2 limes, cut into wedges
2 hard-boiled eggs (cut into wedges)
1 stalk of spring onion (chopped)

Method:
Blend the spice paste in a food processor. Add some water if needed. Pour some oil in a pot and add in the spice paste. Stir the spice paste and wait for it to turn light brown. Add in chicken broth, coconut milk, lemon grass strips, and water. Once the broth starts boiling, add in chicken breast cubes. Cover the pot and lower the heat and simmer for 30 – 40 minutes. Add salt to taste.

Blanch beansprouts, pre-soaked vermicelli / glass noddles, cabbages in another pot of boiling water and transfer them into a bowl once they are cooked. Add in toppings of hard-boiled eggs, chopped spring onions and pour the hot chicken broth into the bowl. Serve hot with lime wedges.

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Balinese Chicken (Ayam Pelalah)

Ingredients:
400g chicken breast

Aromatic herbs:
2 salam leaves (Indonesian bay leaves)
3 kaffir lime leaves (daun jeruk)
2 stalks lemongrass , bruised and tie into a knot
Juice from 3 limes (limau), optional

Spice paste:
10 red chilies, deseeded and sliced
6 bird eye chilies, sliced
10 shallots, sliced
5 garlic, chopped
3cm fresh turmeric root, sliced
½ teaspoon toasted shrimp paste (terasi/belachan)
1 tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
Oil, for frying
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
Preheat the oven 180 degree Celsius. Rub the chicken breast with the olive oil or coconut oil and season with salt. Place the chicken on a baking tray and roast until done, about 40 minutes.

Using a mortar and pestle or food processor, combine chilies, shallots, garlic and turmeric, grind to a smooth paste. If you using a blender, make sure to add a little bit of water or cooking oil to blend the ingredients.

Heat 5 tablespoons of the cooking oil in a wok, add in the spice paste, lemongrass, bay leaves, and kaffir lime leaves, stir-fry until fragrant. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Add in another tablespoon of cooking oil if you want. Remove from the heat and transfer into a bowl, set aside.

Back to the chicken in the oven. When it’s done roasting, remove from the oven and let cool. Discard the skin and deboned, shred the meat into medium-thick strips. Take a spoonful of the spice paste, combine with the chicken meat with the spice paste, toss well until the chicken until the chicken is perfectly coated with the spice paste. Add another spoon of the spice paste if not well coated. Serve the remaining spice paste as a side or as sambal.

Meanwhile, heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat, place half of the chicken and stir-fry for about 2 minutes, repeat the same for the remaining chicken. (I did this step because I found that the shredded chicken meat was a bit wet after being mixed with the spice paste so by doing the quick stir-fry, the texture is what I wanted, a slightly dried up shredded chicken that I love. If you use charcoal to grill the chicken, coal-grill, other than oven grill/roasting, I don’t think of this step is required.)

Transfer the chicken onto a a serving plate and squeeze the juice of the lime before serving.

Cook’s Note:
The limau lime (jeruk limo/nasnaran Mandarin), or jeruk sambal is used for enhancing the flavor of sambal and sauces. It’s commonly used in Balinese cooking. The fruit is small with a smooth skin surface, it releases an aromatic and citrucy smell when it’s touched and squeezed.

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